The thing about Geto and the twins is it’s a complex situation.
You cannot deny he loved those girls like they were his own daughters, nor can you deny they loved him back equally. He was essentially their world. Their home. Their shelter when everything seemed so terrifying.
He didn’t force them to completely conform to his own personal beliefs. Though he preferred to avoid being around non-sorcerers or things provided by them, he went with the girls to get crepes anyway. It mattered to them, so he did it, even if he hated it. He loved his entire family; On his death bed one of his first questions was whether they were okay or not.
He tried his best to be a good father to the twins, and it’s not surprising they latched onto him so much. After everything they went through, he was like a saviour to them, he was the first bit of light in their lives, and because they had been hurt by non-sorcerers before, when Geto told them non-sorcerers were monkeys who deserved to die, they had no reason to think otherwise.
That’s where the problem lies, he still put some his views on these girls, that the world was a horrible place for people like them, and that the cause was non-sorcerers. They grew up around the constant dehumanisation of these people, who hurt them in their youth, and who hurt their father, and who hurt so many others. They were kids who knew nothing else.
It’s tragic really, they were by all means a happy and loving family, who were affectionate with one another, who trusted one another, and yet, these girls were indoctrinated since their youth, by a man who truly believed he was teaching them the truth, and protecting them.
It’s just… really fucked up.
Geto was a kid deeply damaged by the system, and in wanting to protect his own children from that system, he essentially brought them into another one that was hardly any better.
But, in the end, he was so important to Mimiko and Nanako that they were willing to put their lives at risk just so he could finally rest in peace.
It's really a pity that the relationship between Geto, Mimiko and Nanako was only hinted at but not deepened. The official fanbook states that Geto has become a kind of father to the two of them (Gege calls him Papa Geto) and this already hints at the kind of bond between the three of them. When they say 'We love you. We love you. We love you." I think of several things. This phrase is sad but also sweet and powerful. I think the kind of love the twins feel for Geto is one of the purest in Jjk.
"Satoru Gojo is Master Geto's one and only best friend, after all." I was surprised to see that Mimiko and Nanako understood the kind of friendship between Geto and Gojo perfectly. That “after all” encapsulating the various situations that happened is proof.
Moreover, in order not to let Kenjaku remain to usurp Geto's body, Mimiko and Nanako (despite their fear and awareness of the danger) do not give up talking to Sukuna to ask for his help. "Please free… Master Geto.”
Who knows how long they've wanted to say that phrase. I still remain convinced that Mimiko and Nanako shouldn't have gone to such a horrible end, they really didn't deserve it. I hope that some memory of the three of them will emerge in future chapters, because they really make a beautiful family.
I'm not over the fact that the twins are still loyal and by Geto's side even in death. Like, of course they would be. At 17-18 years old, Geto rescued the twins from a village of people that abused and shunned them and took them in, raised them himself.
I don't fault the twins for looking at Kenjaku with murder in their eyes.
[id: it’s a drawing of the stsg kids huddled around Suguru on the couch. It’s referenced off the photo from 1990 of the mom helping her kids beat a hard level in super Mario land. Suguru is wearing a blue sweater and grey sweatpants, along with a gold wedding ring on his hand. Mimiko is leaning over him, wearing one of his floral shirts, and Megumi is on his other side, wearing a blue sweater with red print on the front. Tsumiki and Nanako stand behind him, wearing a ruffled blue top and a yellow top respectively, and a little bubble of Gojo saying 太可爱了… is drawn in the left corner. /end id]
My thoughts keep circling back to some similarities I spotted a while back between the Hasaba twins and Nobara. There's a handful of them, really, from what I can gather -- even if we exclude the fact that both the twins and Nobara originally come from the countryside, which would be the most obvious coincidence.
Take, for instance, Nanako and Nobara's matching personalities: they both are outspoken, confident, brash and boisterous, with somewhat an air of a typical school bully around them. At first those traits might come off as off-putting and offensive, but when you delve deeper it becomes more apparent that such abrasive attitude might just serve as a defense mechanism of sorts and what it really shows is that these girls were taught, for better or worse, how to stand up for themselves.
Then there are curious similarities between their innate techniques. Techniques of all three of them require usage of inanimate objects, and in both Mimiko and Nobara's cases it's an effigy of the target, a voodoo doll -- whether stuffed one or made of straw. Their techniques also allow them to manipulate targets from afar.
Nobara also shows unusually high tolerance of pain, and it's something that keeps bothering me. And though we know that she was trained to be a sorcerer by her grandmother, and being a sorcerer involves adopting a certain mindset, that's not something one can simply order oneself to get used to.
One other thing that doesn't seem to escape my mind is how Nobara was only ever drawn to outsiders back in her childhood, and then proceeded to look up to Maki, finding it in particular admirable how she withstands the oppression of her own family. I guess it's also worth mentioning how Nobara doesn't believe people are excused just by the circumstances they grew up in. Again, I don't think that's an attitude one can afford without facing those hardships oneself.
So what if all the similarities really stem from the background they, Nobara and the twins, come from? I doubt that being a jujutsu sorcerer in a small, enclosed society such as found in a village in the middle of nowhere is a pleasant experience. People get nosy. They also get intolerant towards something they're not prepared to include in their tiny circle. We've already seen how an outsider unwilling to assimilate, Saori, was ostracized and driven out -- and she was just a city girl. We've also seen what being a sorcerer in an environment full of narrow-minded superstition costs.
How much bias and bigotry might Nobara face? Isn't it why she jumped at the first given opportunity to leave for the city? Why she only ever made friends with newcomers to the village? Why she considered all locals to be at least at some degree insane?
I don't know where I'm going with all this, really. If anything, it serves as yet another example of how the conservative mentality of those in charge of jujutsu society harms its sorcerers. Where both sides could've benefited from cooperation, non-sorcerers are left to ignorance and the misplaced antagonism towards sorcerers which that ignorance enables. I wonder if current, somewhat anachronistic, suspicion and superstition that still lingers with some parts of non-sorcerer population are fossilized remnants of the awareness their ancestors once possessed. What was it like to be a non-jujutsu user in the Golden Era of sorcery? Was it chaos and fear of that time which created an unbridgeable rift between sorcerers and non-sorcerers? I wonder what repercussions the current situation would have for the relationship between the two. Would it be history simply repeating itself, or is there an opportunity for real, substantial change, now that the system upheld by outdated tradition is utterly destroyed? Where are we heading with the story now?
suguru and satoru raising little itadori, megumi and nobara together is a cute concept that i adore but i am begging you to consider the tense and absolutely chaotic dynamic that is presented when you dont take mimiko and nanako out of the picture
Megumi nods again. They turn to Tsumiki and sign, “I’ll let you two talk alone.”
Tsumiki’s eyes widen. “Wait—”
Megumi bows their head towards Hana, waves goodbye to Tsumiki, and then slips away before she can argue. She’ll probably thank them later, and Megumi isn’t particularly interested in small talk with someone they’ve never met before anyway. It’s a win-win.
or: tsumiki's siblings just want the best for her, really
✨ 2.5k words || tsumiki x hana
✨ for day 4 of jjk sapphic week: college/university au
made good progress on over the threshold today so here's a look at chapter 3 for wip wednesday!!
i'd already planned a miminana scene, but after last week's episode, it turned into something far more emotional than what i originally set out to write 🥲
chapter 3 should go live sometime this week — *so* glad people are enjoying this fic!!